"Steamboy" (PG-13)

March 18, 2005|By ROGER MOORE, ORLANDO SENTINEL.

Who's in it: Anna Paquin, Alfred Molina, Patrick Stewart

What it's about: A retro science-fiction epic set in Victorian England, this animated adventure features an inventor prodigy named Ra Stim who receives a mysterious metal ball containing a new form of energy capable of powering an entire nation. This young boy must use it to fight evil, redeem his family and save London from destruction.

Worth watching? (star)(star)(star)

" 'Steamboy' is a beautiful, fantastical historic adventure from the Industrial Revolution, a Jules Verne-style exercise in retro-tech science and politics. It's the movie 'Wild Wild West' or 'The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen' could have been--had they been animated and not just cartoons.